Edited by Tnyhy

As the night spread to the entire Ding capital, every household started to lit the lamps, providing a somewhat prosperous scene. However, other than the Palace, the most flouris.h.i.+ng road was probably still the southern part of the city where the restaurants were filled with sounds of eating and drinking, and men and women laughter and music intertwined, making it sound particularly moving.

In the residence of Prince Rui, the lights were done extremely well that even the lanterns were embroidered with gold. When it was lighted up at night, it shone so brightly that it catches one’s eyes. Those who pa.s.sed by would drool over it, and would want to steal one to unravel the gold thread in exchange for money but when they saw the unsmiling, fierce and vicious looking guards, they could only suppress their thieving hearts and leave with their tails between their legs.

That belonged to the Great Liang’s Prince Rui"s residence. Who dared to steal?

It was all quiet in the residence, as if no one was around. Towards the end, there was a huge courtyard and there was a beautifully and intricately decorated pavilion next to a clear pond. The water on the pond was greenish in colour, making the moonlight sultry. If it was during the summer, winery yard and lotus pond would give a different type of charm but unfortunately the weather entered early winter, thus when one sit in the pavilion, there would be a whistling chill.

At this moment there was a person sitting in the pavilion, the large flow of gold and purple almost covered the benches in the pavilion. That was a very handsome youth. Under the gentle moonlight, the normally handsome features became softer and his facial features also appeared warmer. He lowered his head and teased the tiger cub in his embrace.

The tiger cub was forcefully pressed onto his chest by him and it wiggled its head uncomfortably, trying to turn around and bite the hand that was holding on to its head. Unfortunately one did not know that her neck was too short or the force that was pus.h.i.+ng was too vicious, each try was without any achievement. But this tiger cub did not give up, and continued to hold the sleeves of the purple clad youth in her mouth.

Xie Jing Xing pulled out his sleeve from the tiger cub’s mouth, and stared at the area that had been made wet by the tiger cub’s saliva. After looking for a long while, he flicked the tiger cub’s head. The tiger cub started whining and finally managed to wring out, and started to play with Xie Jing Xing’s fingers with her paws.

Among the gra.s.s at a distance, two heads suddenly appeared. Ye Ying stared foolishly at the person and tiger in the pavilion with incredulous eyes. One need to know that Xie Jing Xing had a severe habit for cleanliness and normally did not like any animals. Even people close would not touch his things, but now not only having his sleeve soaked with a beast’s saliva, he was still this calm. She said, “Is Master insane these days? Else why is there a need to keep on carrying a tiger? Hugging her when eating, hugging her when sleeping, one even hear that when showering he was also hugging her. It cannot be that he really want to bring this tiger back to the Great Liang to be Rui"s w.a.n.gFei.” Seeing that the person beside did not move, Ye Ying turned her head, “Huo Long, say something.”

Huo Long was holding her face with her hands and looking at the person in the pavilion, “Master really treat that tiger very well. Just look at his gentle expression when looking at the tiger. With Master’s magnificent style, if it was up to me, I would be willing to be the tiger so that I can sleep and shower with Master.” When Huo Long said those words, she remained calm, not even half ashamed. At the end she shook her head and sighed, “Unfortunately, a person is not as good as a tiger.”

“I think you are bewitched.” Ye Ying looked down upon her.

In the pavilion, Xie Jing Xing rubbed the tiger cub’s head into his chest. The tiger cub struggled desperately, and accidentally pounced onto Xie Jing Xing’s neck and licked Xie Jing Xing’s face.

“You still steal a kiss.” Xie Jing Xing chuckled and his hands went to the tiger cub neck to lift her out and looked at the tiger cub struggling in mid-air as he raised his eyebrows, “Person and tiger have the same morals.”

That tiger cub opened its claws and looked at him and Xie Jing Xing gave a kiss to its head, “Be good.”

Among the gra.s.s, Ye Ying leaned forward, “Master is crazy.”

“I want to kill that tiger.” Huo Long said ferociously.

Just at this moment, Tie Yi’s figure suddenly appeared in the pavilion. Xie Jing Xing placed the tiger cub back into his embrace and asked, “What is the matter?”

“Replying Master, today Princess Ming An send an invitation to Fifth Shen Young Lady.”

“Oh.” Xie Jing Xing’s fingers which were scratching the tiger cub paused slightly.

“Princess Ming An invited Fifth Shen Young Lady for a trip to the residence, and Fifth Shen Young Lady accepted it. She will be going in two days’ time.” Tie Yi bowed and replied.

“Got it.” Xie Jing Xing waved his hand. Tie Yi looked at the tiger cub in Xie Jing Xing’s embrace, and his mouth twitched a bit before he turned around and withdrew into the night.

“One’s nerves are actually very great.” Xie Jing Xing placed his finger in the mouth of the tiger cub. The tiger cub had grown familiar with Xie Jing Xing after eating, bathing and sleeping with him so it just held his finger in her mouth, but did not really bit it and just cling onto it to play.

“Go or not?” Xie Jing Xing asked.

The white tiger cub whined and looked at him with bright eyes.

“Want.” Xie Jing Xing raised his brows, “Listen to you.”

In a blinking of an eye, it was two days later.

In this morning, Shen Miao also woke up early and Jing Zhe and Gu Yu helped her to put on warm clothes, as the weather was slowly entering early winter. Ming Qi’s winter days were always early and especially cold. During the days before, it was continuously raining and Shen Miao’s thicker clothes were all damp, thus it was hard to find a piece. Gu Yu found a cloak from the chest and said, “This piece is quite dry. Although it is somewhat thick but it is very cold today, so it would not be unexpected for Young Lady to wear it.”

Shen Miao looked at the cloak in Gu Yu’s hands. That was a piece of snowy white cloak made from fox from the top to the bottom. It was a rare white fox as there was not a single fur of different colour. Even after a few years, it was still as new as before, apparently a piece of good fur.

This cloak, was the piece of cloak that mysteriously appeared on the second day after staying in the farmer’s house, when Shen Miao accompanied Shen Xin to leave the Ding capital two years ago. That farmer"s household did not have this piece of cloak before, and Shen Miao also did not know where did this thing came from. At that time she thought to exchange it for money but Shen Qiu strongly objected, saying that this white fox fur was difficult to get even with thousands of gold taels, and it was good to keep it.

Even though it remained, but that cloak was not fitting at all. It was too big for Shen Miao so it was kept at the bottom of the chest, and had not been taken out to wear before. If Gu Yu did not take it out today, Shen Miao would not remember about it.

As she looked at that cloak, she thought about one matter. Previously, Xie Jing Xing came to her chambers at night, he mentioned that he met up with her two years ago at the farmer’s house, but she could not remember as she was drunk. Now thinking about it, this cloak should be left behind by Xie Jing Xing. Since she could not remember anything from that night and only know of the nonsense that Xie Jing Xing said, her face turned a little red.

When Jing Zhe and Gu Yu saw that Shen Miao was somewhat uncomfortable, they looked at one another as they did not know what was going on with Shen Miao. Jing Zhe reminded, “Young Lady.”

Shen Miao recovered to her senses, and looked at the cloak in Gu Yu’s hands and said in a bad mood, “Find a time to p.a.w.n it away.”

“But Eldest Young Master said that the fur is very good and did not let Young Lady p.a.w.n.” Gu Yu found it strange.

“No matter how good the fur is, one do not want.” Shen Miao said, “When you pack it up, send it to the Feng Xian p.a.w.nshop. Since the Feng Xian p.a.w.nshop collects valuable things all the time, Manager Ji would definitely like it.”

Seeing Shen Miao like this, Gu Yu and Jing Zhe dare not say anything more. They shrugged their shoulders and continued to find another cloak for Shen Miao.

At the end a lilac colored rabbit fur cloak was chosen and after Shen Miao washed up, they found a reason to go out. It was easy to send Luo Tan away, and Shen Xin and the rest would only return in the evening after staying in the Ministry. Without all the eyes and ears of those original Shen family members, there was lots of freedom.

Mo Qing once again became the coachman. Even though he was currently one of Shen Qiu’s people, he still do things for Shen Miao. In fact, most of the time Shen Miao would not let Mo Qing tell her things to others. He seemed to be more like Shen Miao’s confidant. However he seemed to be accustomed to this ident.i.ty of his, Mo Qing himself had gotten use about accompanying Shen Miao when she leave the residence to do things.

But when Mo Qing knew where Shen Miao was going today, he was also shocked as the place turned out to be the Qin country’s Crown Prince"s residence. Shen Miao’s actions during the tribute banquet had spread out to the entire Ding capital, and naturally Mo Qing was aware of them. It was obvious that Princess Ming An had ill-intentions thus Mo Qing was somewhat worried, but Shen Miao had an expression of a thought-out plan, so he could not say anything more.

Upon reaching the Qin"s Crown Prince"s residence, when the guards saw the invitation in Shen Miao hands, they let Shen Miao wait outside and mentioned that they would report it up, and took the invitation before disappearing.

After a long time, Jing Zhe was somewhat unable to tolerate and spoke, “It is almost half a s.h.i.+chen (1 s.h.i.+chen = 2 hours), these people have yet to report back. This is obvious that Qin Princess deliberately making things difficult for Young Lady. Even if there is a brazier in this carriage, it is cold outside. If Young Lady catch a cold, what would this Princess say?”

Gu Yu also said, “This is really too much. Since one take the initiative to invite others, what is with the snub treatment at the residence"s door?”

Normally when others send out an invitation, one would welcome the person into the residence to wait. Even if it was the Imperial family with its many rules and regulations, they would not hang someone out to dry for half a s.h.i.+chen (1 s.h.i.+chen = 2 hours). Moreover in the half s.h.i.+chen, no one approached at all.

Mo Qing said, “Young lady, it is better to return.”

Shen Miao shook her head, “Since one has come, then wait. It is always better to keep up appearance and not let others get a hold of one on manners.”

When she was in the Qin country, Princess Ming An liked to treat others like this. In the severe of winter, she would pa.s.s a message early in the morning to let others wait at the icy cold garden, and once that started they would be waiting a few s.h.i.+chens, and at times one was unable to see anyone for up to a day. Afterwards a servant would be sent over to say that something cropped up and she was unable to attend. This was waiting in vain for a day. Princess Ming An’s methods were as always and it was also shallow on the surface. She had already tolerated in her past life so what did half a s.h.i.+chen count in this life?

In the Qin"s Crown Prince"s residence, Princess Ming An was sitting in the room at this moment as the servant added silver strands of coals into the brazier. She picked up the tea on the table and took a little sip with a carefree expression on her face.

She asked the servants outside, “Have that s.l.u.t left?”

“Replying Your Highness.” The servant said, “Fifth Shen Young Lady’s horse carriage is still outside the residence"s door and have yet to leave.”

A trace of unhappiness flashed on Princess Ming An’s face, “Unexpectedly this patience.” She initially thought to let Shen Miao dry by the sun for a while, and the proud and arrogant official’s daughter would return to her residence in a huff. After that happens, she would have a reason to call Shen Miao out for being disrespectful to her.

However one did not think that Shen Miao was able to keep her composure but she smiled, “After waiting for so long, one think that one’s patience is almost there. It would not be bad to change to another way. Someone come and pa.s.s BenGong’s instructions to invite Shen Miao in.”